Where Failure Is Always An Option.

America loves winning -- and completely ignores failing. That's why it took a Swedish psychologist, Doctor Samuel West, to come up with the idea for the Museum of Failure: "a collection of over 100 failed products and services from some of the world’s best-known companies. Visitors get a unique insight into the risky business of innovation." And the biggest failure? The failure to innovate. Step inside.

A pop-up exhibit on Fisherman's Wharf. The creator and the promoter are currently having a legal beef. So there's Failure #1.

The Trabant 1957-1991. This East German design was essentially unchanged for over 30 years, boasted a 13-year-long customer waiting list, and ultimately sold nearly 3 million cars. It sold because it had zero competitors. The competition was a sturdy pair of shoes. "It was frustratingly slow, smoke-belching, unreliable, loud, and looked like a clown car."

Introducing the Hawaii Chair. A personal injury suit waiting to happen.

Even a child knows ketchup is red, and mustard is yellow. Failed condiments.

The Exuebra, 2006, the first inhalable insulin for diabetics. No more needles! But bulky and expensive, it was quickly rejected by consumers.

All form, no function. This is the Philip Starck Hot Berta, 1989, a stylish tea kettle. Beautiful to look at, but awkward and dangerous to use.

Little Miss No Name, From Hasbro, 1965. A counterpoint to Mattel's over-consuming Barbie. Designed in the socially conscious 1960's, it was meant to foster empathy and understanding for those less fortunate. "Most kids were terrified. Hasbro quickly discontinued the doll... making it a collectible today."

The jury is out on whether this product ever really existed. Allegedly from the early 1980s.

The Itera was an entirely plastic bicycle. (Plus rubber tires). Its downfall was if you weighed 200 pounds, it broke apart. The Segway? They still rent them today to tourists near me in Golden Gate Park. But at one time every letter carrier and beat cop was projected to be riding on one. Today there's a growing variety of battery-enabled vehicles on the road -- or sidewalk.

The Facit, 1922-1972 This example illustrates the danger of not innovating. For half a century, this Swedish company dominated the mechanical calculator global industry. What happened when electronic calculators emerged in the 1960s? Facit couldn't tell fad from future, and they did nothing. By the 1970s Japan was flooding the market with cheap electronic calculators. Game over. Facit was quickly out of business.

Persil power, 1994. Too much of a good thing, way too much. From packaged goods behemoth Unilever. The new "Accelerator" super ingredient was an extra powerful detergent guaranteeing to get ALL the dirt out. It managed to destroy customers' clothes in the process. So Unilever was on the hook for an expensive recall plus the cost of replacing the damaged clothes. (Seems like a little pre-release product testing could've caught this.)

Check out the website for more examples: https://museumoffailure.com/